Nearly half of renter households in the United States are now considered cost-burdened, a benchmark that federal housing analysts use when households spend more than 30% of income on rent and utilities. The latest national measure comes from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, which on March 12, 2026, released its America’s Rental Housing 2026 report showing the pressure remains near record levels. The findings underscore how housing costs continue to outpace incomes for millions of tenants across the country.
Harvard report puts renter cost burden at 22.7 million households
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reported that 22.7 million renter households in 2024 spent more than 30% of their income on housing, equal to 49% of all renters, according to the center’s March 12, 2026 press release and report. The same report said 12.1 million renter households, or 26%, were severely cost-burdened, meaning they spent more than half of their income on rent and utilities. The center based its findings on tabulations of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 1-year estimates.
The report places the latest figure just below the 2023 level cited by Harvard researchers, when 22.6 million renter households were cost-burdened and the rate reached about one-half of all renters. Separately, the Census Bureau said in a December 2024 release that 21 million renter households in 2023, or 49.7% of the 42.5 million renter households for whom rent burden was calculated, spent more than 30% of income on housing. Together, those datasets show the burden has remained widespread across consecutive years even as market conditions shifted.
Harvard also said the number of cost-burdened renters has grown by 2.3 million since 2019. Its researchers reported that professionally managed apartment asking rents fell 0.6% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2025, but that easing at the high end of the market did not reverse broader affordability strain. By Harvard’s measure, the problem is now embedded across income levels, not limited only to the poorest households.
The latest data describe a national affordability problem rather than a single-city event. Harvard said renters earning less than $30,000 a year faced the heaviest strain in 2024, with 83% spending more than 30% of income on housing and 66% spending more than half. After paying for housing, those lower-income renters had a median of just $210 left each month for all other expenses, according to the report.
The Census Bureau’s earlier 2023 analysis also found broad disparities by race and ethnicity, with cost-burden rates above the national renter average for Black renters, Hispanic renters and Native American renters. Those findings indicate that the national total masks uneven impacts across communities, even though the headline measure applies across the country. Harvard’s 2026 rental report similarly said the worst burdens remain concentrated among lower-income households and renters of color.
What is not yet fully known from the topline national reports is how every metro area, county and neighborhood compares in the newest 2024 data. Harvard’s report provides a national picture, and the Census Bureau has released prior county-level and household-level snapshots, but neither source in the materials reviewed offers a comprehensive new locality-by-locality list tied to the March 2026 release. That means local housing agencies will likely rely on additional Census tabulations to refine the picture for individual communities.
Harvard attributed the ongoing pressure to a mix of elevated rents, limited affordable supply and income growth that has not kept pace for many households. In its 2026 rental report, the center said growth in the rental stock over the last decade has been concentrated entirely in higher-rent units, while the number of units renting for less than $1,000 declined by 7 million as homes were lost or converted to higher rents. That shift reduced the supply available to households with the least room in their budgets.
The center also said broader household finances remain under stress. In a January 2026 analysis, Harvard researchers reported that prices excluding shelter had risen 24% since September 2019, including 31% increases for food and beverages and transportation. Those non-housing costs matter because renters who are already devoting large shares of income to housing have less flexibility to absorb other necessities.
For renters, the practical effect is that affordability challenges are likely to remain visible even if some apartment markets cool. Harvard’s 2026 housing analyses said demand growth has slowed and some professionally managed rents have flattened, but cost burdens continue to climb because housing remains expensive relative to incomes and affordable units remain in short supply. The result is a market where relief has been uneven, and the national renter cost-burden rate remains close to one in every two households.